Power unit for vegetable cutter

ABSTRACT

A unitary power unit for vegetable cutters including a housing, a motor, a speed-reducing drive, and a hub for supporting a vegetable cutter attachment and connecting it to the speedreducing drive. The hub is mounted on the front wall of the housing. Legs are mounted on the front portion power unit to raise it above its rear portion, thereby tilting it and any implement attached thereto. The legs extend forwardly of the front wall to provide stability during operation.

United States Patent Melvin E Bricker 2723 Saddleback Drive, Cincinnati,Ohio 45244 May 20, 1970 Feb. 16, 1971 Inventor Appl. No. Filed PatentedPOWER UNIT FOR VEGETABLE CUTTER 5 Claims, 2 Drawing Figs.

U.S. Cl 146/115, 74/ l 6 Int. Cl. 826d l/28, B26d 4/22 Field ol'Search146/1 15,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,585,673 2/1952 Ottersland146/1 14X 3,191,523 6/1965 Fritz 146/114X 3,416,583 12/1968 Bricker146/115 Primary ExaminerWillie G Abercrombie Atlorney- Wood, Herron &Evans ABSTRACT: A unitary power unit for vegetable cutters including ahousing, a motor, a speed-reducing drive, and a hub for supporting avegetable cutter attachment and connecting it to the speed-reducingdrive. The hub is mounted on the front wall of the housing. Legs aremounted on the front portion power unit to raise it above its rearportion, thereby tilting it and any implement attached thereto. The legsextend forwardly of the front wall to provide stability duringoperation.

PATENTEU'FEBI 519m INVENTOR. %M

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates generally topower units for food cutters and is particularly directed to ahigh-speed drive for vegetable cutters, such as cabbage shredders,utilized in restaurants, carryout food stores and other establishmentswhich prepare food in large quantities. :Up to the present time thesevegetable cutters have been mounted on, anddriven by, heavypower unitsbuilt originally for other purposes, such as mixers and other deviceswhich have proved very inefficient due to their low speed andawkwardness.

' Since the normal drive speed of a mixer, or the like, is relativelyslow, it has been proposed to raise their output speed by adding anauxiliary speedup attachment between the mixer and vegetable cutter. Oneform of such attachment is shown in my earlier U.S. Pat. No. 3,416,583.In some cases this arrangement has proven cumbersome and less thancompletely satisfactory. In the first place, it takes up anobjectionable amount of counter or table space. Moreover, it requires anappreciable amount of time to set up since three different units must beconnected to get the whole device into operation. Also, while themixer'unit is being employed to drive the vegetable cutter, it cannot beefficiently used for mixing or the other functions for which it isprimarily intended while simultaneously cutting.

The present invention contemplates a small, integral power unit completewith a motor, speed-reducing drive and a hub for supporting a vegetablecutter attachment and establishing a driving connection to the rotarycutter disc thereof. In accordance with the present invention, the powerunit is supported at an angle to the horizontal, i. e., the axis of theunit is tilted upwardly so that the vegetable cutter is likewisesupported in a tilted position. More particularly, in the power unit themotor, which is the heaviest element of the unit, is mounted at therear, lowermost portion of the unit while the lighter weight speedreducing drive is mounted adjacent to the front or elevated wall of theunit which also carries the mounting hub. The housing is supported atits forward end by legs which extend downwardly and forwardly of thefront wall. The legs are of a sufficient length so that the drive axisof the hub is preferably elevated at an appreciable angle, for example,of from l--20. I

One of the principal advantages of the present power unit is that itprovides a compact, highly efficient drive for supporting and rotatingvegetable cutters at their optimum speed. The power unit occupies onlya'minimum amount of shelf space and its use frees other heavy dutyequipment, such as mixers,

for the types of jobs for which they were originally designed.

Another advantage of the present invention resulting from the tiltedconstruction of the present power unit is that a more efficient gravityfeed is obtained from the vegetable cutter. This reduces the cuttingtime and reduces the pressure which need be applied, by the operator.Moreover, the vegetable .cutter unit is elevated above the countertop toprovide a convenient space for the insertion of a pan or otherproductreceiving container below the discharge chute of the cutter.

A still further advantage of the present power unit is that it isextremely stable. More particularly, because of the tiltedconfiguration, with the heavy motor element being disposed at thelowermost rearward portion of the unit, and with the forward supportlegs of the unit extending forwardly from the front wall, the unit atall times remains firmly seated on the counter. Even when the vegetableslicer attachment is fully loaded and actuated, there is no tendency ofthe unit to tip over.

Moreover, the present power unit renders the operation of the vegetablecutter safer than is the case with a horizontally oriented attachment ofthe type shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,4l6,583. Specifically, by supportingthe vegetable cutterattachment in an upwaldly tilted position, itbecomes more difficult for an operator to reach over the top wall of theunit and then reach his hand downwardly intothe area of the cutter.

It is a nother object of the present inventionto provide a a power unitin which the cutter-supporting boss can readily be replaced with a bossof a different configuration and size so that the power unit can beadapted to drive different types and makes of vegetable cutters as wellas other types of attachments. 'These and other objectives andadvantages of the invention of this application will be betterunderstood from a description of the drawings illustrating a preferredembodiment of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRA WINGS In the drawings: FIG. 1 is a side view of apreferred form of power unit constructed in accordance with the presentinvention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 2-2 of FIG.

Referring in detail to the drawings, a power unit constructed inaccordance with this invention is shown in FIG. 1 generally as 10. Thepower unit 10 supports a vegetable cutter attachment 11. The details ofconstruction of the vegetable cutter 11 constitute no part of thepresent invention. In general, however, the attachment comprises ahopper 12 for receiving vegetables to be comminuted, and a rotatableshaft 13 for supportinga vegetable cutter 14 for engagement withvegetables placed in hopper 12. One typical form of cutter particularlyuseful for shredding cabbage and the like is shown in my copendingapplication Ser. No. 875,806, filed Nov. 12, 1969, for Shredder Plate.The comminuted material, for example, shredded cabbage, is dischargedfrom the cutter attachment through a discharge chute 15.

The power unit 10 comprises a housing 16 which encloses a motor 17 and aspeed reducer including a drive pulley l8, belt 20 and a driven pulley21. It is to be understood that other speed reducing means such as agear drive, friction drive, variable speed drive or other types of beltdrive can be utilized. The motor is controlled by switch means (notshown) well known to those in the art. The motor 17 is mounted upon thebottom wall 22 of the housing in any suitable manner, such as by meansof bolts 23. The housing further comprises sidewalls 24, a rear wall 25,a top wall 26 and a front wall 27. The forward end of the housing iselevated by means of legs 28 which are mounted on the bottom wall 22 ofthe housing so they extend downwardly and forwardly of the power unititself to a counter or other horizontal supporting surface S, tiltingthe unit up so that its front portion is supported higher than its rearportion with respect to surface S. I have determined that an angle offrom l5-20with the horizontal is preferable.

Driven pulley 21 is attached to a rotatable sleeve 30 as by means of asetscrew 31 or any key or pin device well known in the art. As pulley 21turns, sleeve 30 rotates with it. The sleeve includes a shoulder bearingagainst surface 32 of a thrust plate 33.

A hub 34 is attached to the front wall 27 of housing 16 as by bolts 35which also hold thrust plate 3 3 against the front wall of the housing.

As shown in FIG. 1, shredder plate 14 is.connected to a drive shaft 13of the vegetable cutter attachment. Shaft 13 is in turn rotatablymounted in a bearing sleeve 36 carried by hub 37. Hub 37 includes ashoulder 38 and an extension 40 or reduced diameter. Extension 40 isdimensioned so that it fits into a bore of corresponding diameter in hub34. A bolt 39 threadably engages hub 34 and extends inwardly intocontact with extension 40 to rigidly clamp the extension into hub 34.Drive shaft 13 extends past the end of section 40 and includes a portionof rectangular cross section shaped to fit into the bore 41 of sleeve30. Any shape enabling the bore 41 to drivingly engage shaft 13 willsuffice.

Thus, it can be seen that power is transmitted from motor 17 to pulley18 through belt 20 to pulley 21 to sleeve 30. This sleeve in turn drivesshaft 13 which carries plate 14. It is also evident that the sleeve 3i)and hub 34 may be replaced with similar parts but of differentdimensions to accept a variety of vegetable cutters of different makesand attachments for different functions.

In a preferred type of vegetable cutter an arm 42 attached to a pusherplate (not shown) is pivoted at the top of hopper l2. Downward actuatingpressure on arm 42 will cause the plate to press the vegetable into theworking area of the cutter, i.e. against cutter disc 14. l have foundthat where the power unit and hopper are tilted, as contemplated by thisinvention, gravity tends to urge the food into the working area andconsiderably less pressure need be applied to handle 42; and in someinstances the paddle is not neededat all. Moreover, tilting the powerunit raises the rim of the hopper 12 over which food is placed and wherethe unit is mounted at a sufficient height, it becomes difficult for anoperator to reach over the rim and down into the hopper. This measurablyincreases the safety of the unit.

Also. since the unit is tilted, the discharge chute 15 of the vegetablecutter is disposed at an angle to the horizontal surface and is raised aconsiderable distance above it. This clearance space provides ample roomfor a tray or pan to be placed under the chute 15 to receive thecomminuted vegetables. It is also important to note that the ends oflegs 28 bear against the supporting surface at a point in front of thepower unit and not directly under it. The ends of these legs in effectfunction to stabilize the unit since in order to tip it over it would benecessary to pivot the weight of the entire power unit and part of thevegetable slicer around the leg ends.

From the foregoing disclosure of the general principles of the presentinvention and the above description of a preferred embodiment, thoseskilled in the art will readily comprehend the various modifications towhich the invention is susceptible.

Accordingly, I desire to be limited only by the scope of the followingclaims.

lclaim:

l. A power unit for driving a high-speed vegetable cutter of the typeutilized in a vegetable cutter attachment having a hopper, a drive shaftfor supporting and rotating said cutter, said shaft including anextension adapted for connection to the power unit, said power unitcomprising:

A housing including a bottom wall and a front wall;

A motor mounted within said housing;

speed-reduction means disposed within saidhousing and connected to saidmotor; a

a drive sleeve configurated to receive a said shaft extension;

said drive sleeve being interconnected to said speed-reduction means;

a hub mounted on said front wall of the housing and rotatably supportingsaid drive sleeve; and

means supporting said housing at an angle relative to the horizontalwith said front wall being elevated.

2. The power unit ofclaim l in which said motor is mounted upon thebottom wall of said housing in a position remote from said front walland said speed-reduction means is disposed adjacent said front wall.

3. The power unit of claim 1 in which the means for supporting saidhousing extend forwardly of said front wall.

4. The power unit of claim 1 in which said means for supporting saidhousing comprise legs depending from said housing and disposed forwardlyof the front wall thereof.

5. The power unit of claim 1 in which said hub and sleeve are removablymounted so that the power unit can be utilized with different vegetablecutter attachments.

1. A power unit for driving a high-speed vegetable cutter of the typeutilized in a vegetable cutter attachment having a hopper, a drive shaftfor supporting and rotating said cutter, said shaft including anextension adapted for connection to the power unit, said power unitcomprising: A housing including a bottom wall and a front wall; A motormounted within said housing; speed-reduction means disposed within saidhousing and connected to said motor; a drive sleeve configurated toreceive a said shaft extension; said drive sleeve being interconnectedto said speed-reduction means; a hub mounted on said front wall of thehousing and rotatably supporting said drive sleeve; and means supportingsaid housing at an angle relative to the horizontal with said front wallbeing elevaTed.
 2. The power unit of claim 1 in which said motor ismounted upon the bottom wall of said housing in a position remote fromsaid front wall and said speed-reduction means is disposed adjacent saidfront wall.
 3. The power unit of claim 1 in which the means forsupporting said housing extend forwardly of said front wall.
 4. Thepower unit of claim 1 in which said means for supporting said housingcomprise legs depending from said housing and disposed forwardly of thefront wall thereof.
 5. The power unit of claim 1 in which said hub andsleeve are removably mounted so that the power unit can be utilized withdifferent vegetable cutter attachments.